Wildest Non-TV Story of the Day: U.S. Wanted to Detonate Atom Bomb on the Moon. Plan Involved Carl Sagan

The story continues, "The secret project, named ‘A Study of Lunar Research Flights’ and nicknamed ‘Project A119,’ however was never carried out. America’s planning included calculations by astronomer Carl Sagan, then a young graduate student, of the behavior of dust and gas generated by the blast, the Daily Mail reports

The ANI story adds, "The plan consisted of carrying a nuclear device some 238,000 miles to the moon on a missile that would have detonated on impact. The U.S. allegedly wanted to blast the moon with a nuclear bomb to display its power to the Soviet Union during the ‘space race.’ "